1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for flashing volatile organic compounds from a painted object and more specifically to a method for flashing volatile organic compounds and water from a vehicle painted with a water-borne high-solids automotive base coat paint.
2. Related Art
The paint finish on a new vehicle is often regarded as the single most noticeable visual feature of the vehicle. When the finish is smooth, even and attractive, the vehicle owner is likely to be influenced as to the quality of the vehicle in a positive manner. Conversely, when the paint finish contains defects, the owner is more likely to complain to the vehicle dealer and attribute a lack of quality to the vehicle generally. Accordingly, vehicle manufacturers and paint suppliers have expended vast resources to produce enhanced paint application processes to improve the quality of the finish of the vehicle and eliminate defects associated with the application of paint to the vehicle.
Despite these efforts, modern automotive paint systems which apply water-borne high-solids automotive base coat paints still experience significant application related paint defects such as bubbling, pop and orange peel. Pop defects are initially bubbling defects. Bubbling occurs when air, water vapor and/or vaporized solvents are entrapped in the paint film; the pocket of trapped air, water vapor and/or solvents causes a bubble of paint to form in the paint film. Pop occurs when this bubble bursts and the paint which had formed the bubble sets before this excess paint flows out in an even manner to the surrounding area. A small ring of paint having a significantly greater thickness than the paint in the surrounding area typically characterizes pop defects. Orange peel is a term for a dried paint film having a dimpled appearance resembling the peel of an orange.
Pop defects have been particularly enigmatical as the prior art methods for controlling this defect have not been consistently successful in producing significant reductions in the frequency of pop defects. These prior art methods have typically focused on paint formulations, paint application methods and flashing processes subjecting the painted object to relatively high levels of heat.
Pop defects are usually not detected until the object has been processed through the primary paint process since most modern automotive paint systems do not completely dry the base coat of paint until a top coat of clear paint (clear-coat) has been applied. The repair of a pop defect is time consuming as the effected area must be sanded to remove the pop defect, paint is applied to the defective area and feathered into surrounding areas, the paint is flashed and dehydrated and then a clear-coat is applied to the area and feathered into surrounding areas. As one would expect, the resulting quality of the finish of a repaired pop defect is highly dependent upon the skill of the technician performing the repair. Regardless of the skill level of the technician, however, the finish of a repaired vehicle will always be inferior to the finish of a vehicle processed through a paint system without defects, especially when metallic-type base-coats are used, as the feathered edges of the repaired area will always be visible to some degree.
Consequently, there remains a need in the art for a method to reduce the frequency of pop defects.